The ＂Big＂ Mission of ＂Small＂ Property

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A house is not only a place to live, but also a harbor of life and a source of happiness. Under the new mode of real estate development, whoever can provide good houses and services for the masses will have a market, development and future. Good service is one of the important yardsticks to measure a good house, and providing good service is an important responsibility of the property management industry. This newspaper specially invited Cheng Peng, a professor from School of Economics and Management of Beijing Forestry University, a member of the Real Estate Market Service Committee of the Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and a member of the Community Construction Committee, to discuss how "small" properties can undertake the "big" mission.

Decode the connotation of property

China construction news:Please introduce the specific connotation of the concept of property.

Cheng Peng:According to China’s property management regulations, property refers to all kinds of houses that have been built and put into use and their supporting equipment, facilities and venues. Property can be large or small, a unit house can be a property, a building can also be used as a property, and the same building can be divided into several properties according to different ownership.

Taking residential quarters as an example, it includes not only residential buildings, but also daily elevators, various monitoring equipment, pipe network and yard, which together constitute the whole property.

China construction news:In the new development stage, what are the professional values of property management?

Cheng Peng:The core of professional value of property management lies in the daily maintenance and management of houses, such as the maintenance and inspection of elevators according to the requirements of national laws, keeping fire-fighting facilities in a feasible state, no water leakage on the roof, no risk of falling on the facade, etc. Although these are not easy for owners to see, they are the most essential value of property management. To judge the quality of property service enterprises, we should first consider their professionalism in the above aspects, and then pay attention to the environment, safety and other aspects.

Elevator maintenance

Some owners tend to pay more attention to whether the ground of the community is clean and whether the greening is beautiful, but pay less attention to the investment and achievements of property service enterprises in the above aspects. To this end, some property service companies will guide owners to pay attention to more important aspects of property management by holding "computer room open day" and other activities, rather than just paying attention to superficial phenomena.

At present, the whole society has entered the era of housing stock, and a large number of houses have been built for a certain number of years. If the facilities and equipment are not maintained in place, the houses will age ahead of time and affect the ability to maintain and increase assets. Therefore, some work of property management should be enforced, such as regular maintenance and physical examination of houses; Some work can be market-oriented, such as security, cleaning and greening.

China construction news:Housing safety is a concern of owners. How can the property management industry help to ensure housing safety?

Cheng Peng:Specialized property service enterprises have detailed daily maintenance operation manuals, monitoring systems and quality control systems, which can ensure that houses are well maintained. Even if a well-maintained house has a certain age, its unit doors, floors, walls, underground parking lots, lighting and elevators can still be kept in good condition.

Manage and make good use of funds

China construction news:What’s the difference between property service fee and residential special maintenance fund? What’s the role?

Cheng Peng:Property service fee is the daily maintenance expense of residential quarters, and the document No.1864 of Development and Reform Price [2003] clearly stipulates its nine contents, including the salary of property service personnel, social security, welfare expenses, daily maintenance of public facilities in public areas of residential quarters, maintenance of clean and green order, and office expenses.

When the equipment is damaged and the roof leaks a lot, which is beyond the scope of the property service fee, it is necessary to use the special maintenance funds for the house. The fund is used for overhaul, medium repair, renovation and transformation of common facilities of property sharing equipment, and its ownership belongs to all owners.

China construction news:How to ensure the effective use of funds in the process of housing maintenance and renovation?

Cheng Peng:In the process of house maintenance and renovation, the effective use of funds is very important, and the relevant laws also clearly stipulate the use of funds.

For example, some residential areas are affected by hidden dangers left over during the construction period or the equipment maintenance work of a few property service enterprises is not in place, so elevators need to be overhauled in advance. In this process, how to supervise the services of property service enterprises and equipment maintenance companies has become the current difficulty and pain point. Although the owners should play a supervisory role, they are not professional enough, so the government needs to intervene more.

At present, some cities in China have carried out relevant explorations. Ningbo, Zhejiang, Cangzhou, Hebei and other cities have introduced insurance mechanisms to supervise the maintenance activities of property service companies and maintenance companies through insurance companies, so as to ensure that equipment and facilities are effectively maintained in strict accordance with relevant standards, thereby reducing the expenditure of special maintenance funds for housing and avoiding the problems of excessive exhaustion of funds and subsequent financing.

China construction news:How to solve the problem of difficult payment of property service fees?

Cheng Peng:The problem of difficult payment of property service fees in old residential areas has a long history and is not formed in a short period of time. For example, some residents in old residential areas have to pay more than 1,000 yuan in property service fees a year, which is acceptable for office workers, but some elderly people with less pensions will feel greater economic pressure and even consider using this money to buy daily necessities.

Therefore, to solve this problem, we should not simply deny the residents’ willingness to pay, but look for a suitable solution from the perspective of human care.

Help the whole process management.

China construction news:In the early stage of housing design and construction, can the property management industry play a role, help optimize the design, improve the details, and provide guarantee for the later work?

Cheng Peng:In the process of housing design and construction, property service enterprises should give full play to their professional advantages and intervene in the design stage. Housing designers may pay more attention to the design appearance and construction process, but pay less attention to the later maintenance cost and whether it is easy to maintain.

Theoretically, the realty service enterprise should put the specialty first, but in practice, only a few real estate development enterprises and construction companies will let the realty service enterprise intervene in advance. In most cases, the house is handed over to the realty service enterprise through the preliminary service contract after completion, which may lead to problems such as thoughtlessness in the design process and still need further adjustment and improvement.

China construction news:What is the implementation of property management in different types of communities such as old residential areas, new commercial housing and affordable housing? Is there a difference?

Cheng Peng:Property management in old residential areas faces many challenges, a large part of which is due to imperfect equipment and facilities during construction. For example, in the 1980s and 1990s, China had not yet entered the automobile society, and the problem of parking spaces was not considered in the construction of old residential areas. Nowadays, the parking contradiction is prominent, which is beyond the capacity of property service enterprises. Although property service companies will try their best to find parking spaces, it is still difficult to meet the needs of owners, resulting in low satisfaction of owners.

At the same time, the structure of residents in old residential areas also has an impact on property management. In Beijing, for example, most of the old residential areas are retired elderly people, accounting for about half, and the other half includes young families with children and tenants of rented houses. The elderly have a relatively weak understanding and acceptance of property management and a low recognition of the value of property management. Through the investigation of hundreds of residential quarters in Beijing, we found that young people’s recognition and tolerance of property services is obviously better than that of the elderly. This is because the elderly have come from the planned economy era, are accustomed to the logistics services provided by the unit, and have a knot in paying the property service fee. The residents of newly-built residential quarters generally have a high recognition of the value of property services.

Newly-built commercial housing communities are relatively complete in facilities and equipment, residents have a high recognition of the value of property services, and property management is relatively easy to carry out. The property management of affordable housing has unique characteristics due to different policies and security nature, but overall, compared with old residential areas, it may have certain advantages in facilities and residents’ cognition.

China construction news:Owner’s satisfaction is an important index to measure the level of property service management. Then, how should the owners and property service enterprises cooperate and communicate well?

Cheng Peng:Owner’s satisfaction is an important index to measure the management level of property services, but property services are nonstandard and difficult to define accurately.

For example, after cleaning the floor, the cleaning staff may have garbage on the floor due to other factors, which is easy for the owners to misunderstand that the cleaning work is not done well. In order to solve this problem, the owners and property service enterprises can discuss the service standards together. For example, in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, the open budget logic is adopted, that is, the property service enterprises and owners discuss the use of property service fees face to face.

For another example, the property service fee of a residential area is expected to be 1 million yuan. The two sides will jointly discuss the cost allocation of equipment and facilities maintenance, cleaning and security, and clarify how many cleaning personnel can be hired according to the urban minimum wage and the corresponding service level, and publicize them in advance for comments.

The advantage of this is to improve transparency and avoid suspicion and distrust caused by the owners’ ignorance of the whereabouts of property service fees. Although China’s property management regulations and related documents require transparency in publicity, the situation in different places is different and needs to be practiced in combination with reality.

Economically developed areas have explored this aspect earlier, such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. This way has effectively reduced the number of complaints about the inaction and non-standard service of property service enterprises by owners calling 12345. After the owners participate in the process of service standard formulation and cost expenditure, their satisfaction naturally improves, which also provides a good guarantee for the follow-up work.

China construction news:In the practice of property management, how to encourage residents to actively participate in community affairs management and effectively promote the concept of community co-construction, co-governance and sharing?

Cheng Peng:In community governance, there are three main bodies: street community (government power), property service enterprises (market power) and owners’ committee (social power). Although all three hope for good community management, many communities fail to achieve the expected results due to different operating logics. Property service enterprises treat communities and owners from a profit perspective; Owners treat property service enterprises from the perspective of property rights; Street community looks at the community from the perspective of order. These logical differences lead to problems in the process of collaboration. For example, under the community governance mode led by property service enterprises, it is difficult to increase the property service fee but the service cost rises, and the owners’ awareness of rights awakens, and the contradictions between the two sides are prominent; In the community governance mode dominated by owners, the professionalism of owners is insufficient, and it is difficult to grasp the professional value behind the integration model of property service enterprises; Although some problems can be solved under the tripartite cooperation mode of property service enterprises, owners and communities, the owners may not give full play to their roles, and the property service enterprises may undertake matters not agreed in the service contract.

Property management affairs public column

The key to solve the problem of community governance is to effectively play the role of owners and let them participate in governance. For example, in the investigation in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, we found that the open budget is an effective method, that is, to make the expenses of the community transparent. Specifically, the transparency of sunshine is first reflected in the transparency of daily operation and maintenance of equipment and facilities, including truthfully telling the owners about the operation of elevators and other equipment and facilities, and not concealing problems; Intervene and supervise the expenses related to safety maintenance to ensure that the funds are spent where they are spent. At the same time, it is necessary to be transparent whether the daily equipment and facilities are operated according to the maintenance requirements. This is not only the transparency of money, but also to let the owners clearly understand the operation and maintenance of the equipment and facilities in the community to ensure the safety of living. In this way, the concept of community co-construction, co-governance and sharing can be promoted and the level of property management can be improved.

Multi-party synergy

China construction news:At present, digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence are developing rapidly. In the property management industry, are these new technologies also available? What are the specific aspects?

Cheng Peng:New technology has a broad application space in the field of property management. In the aspect of equipment and facilities management, sensors can be placed to monitor the elevator running status in real time, including X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis data, to ensure its operation within the specification range; Monitor whether the fire water pressure is effective; We can also use new technical means, such as China Academy of Construction Sciences using satellites to monitor whether there are potential safety hazards on the facade of the building. Through these technologies, we can find the potential problems of houses in time and take measures to prevent and deal with them before they happen.

With the increasing age of property management practitioners in China, especially cleaning and security personnel, the demand for unmanned security and cleaning will increase in the future. For example, some enterprises have introduced cleaning robots, but a lot of data analysis and observation are still needed to guide the robots to carry out cleaning operations effectively as planned.

In the relationship between property service enterprises and owners, new technologies can be used to effectively monitor the performance of property service contracts. Owners need to know whether the property service enterprises provide services according to the service contract, but the traditional street intervention judgment method has a large workload and high governance cost. Through new Internet technologies or IT means such as smart contracts, problems such as service process marks and dispute judgments can be solved, and the relationship between property service enterprises and owners can be guaranteed to be more standardized and transparent.

China construction news:Talent is the driving force for the development of the industry. What fields of talent does the property management industry need in the future?

Cheng Peng: In the actual operation of residential projects, property service practitioners need to have legal knowledge. The state has clear legal requirements for relevant operations, and employees should be clear about the operating norms and codes and have a clear understanding of the hazards. Knowing the law is one of the important connotations of property service talents. It is not required to graduate from law major, but it is necessary to be familiar with the relevant laws and regulations of property management, which is the basis for ensuring the legal compliance of property management.

Cleaning robot

Most property service companies mainly undertake the functions of house inspection and reporting, similar to general practitioners in community hospitals. Relevant post personnel should be able to judge whether the house needs maintenance and possible hidden dangers, communicate with the owner and report to relevant departments. For these jobs involving daily maintenance of housing safety, a licensed post system should be implemented, and the professionalism of property service enterprises should be reflected through relevant assessment and qualification identification.

In addition, the property service enterprises have gradually become independent from the past as subsidiaries of real estate development enterprises, and the demand for talents is more diversified. In addition to the talents at the project operation level, it is also necessary to study professionals in various fields such as law, strategy, enterprise operation and technology to meet the needs of the company’s development and enhance the company’s comprehensive management and operation capabilities.

China construction news:What are the new trends and changes in property management in China’s current laws and policies? What impact has it brought to property management?

Cheng Peng:With the development of society, China’s property management laws and policies have been constantly adjusted and improved, and there are mainly the following new trends at present.

First, attach importance to the professional value of property management, especially housing safety, and the state will issue relevant mandatory standards to ensure housing safety in place.

The second is to pay attention to the growth and construction of owners’ ability. It is a long process for owners to participate in the improvement of property management ability, which needs to be realized through continuous learning, conflict adjustment and legal terms learning. For example, after years of change and development of owners’ committees in some communities, members of owners’ committees gradually realize that they have to work wholeheartedly for the public in order to be recognized by the owners, so as to carry out their work better.

The third is to strengthen the effective supervision of the property service process, including the construction of the licensing system for post personnel in property service enterprises and the remote monitoring and supervision of equipment operation by using new technologies such as sensors, so as to make up for the problems arising from the failure of the market mechanism.

These new trends of laws and policies have had a far-reaching impact on property management.

In terms of housing safety, the introduction of mandatory standards will encourage property service enterprises to pay more attention to the daily maintenance of houses, improve the level of housing security, reduce potential safety hazards, provide a safer living environment for owners, and help to preserve and increase the value of housing assets.

In the aspect of owner’s ability construction, with the improvement of owner’s participation consciousness and ability, it will promote the communication and cooperation between owners and property service enterprises to be smoother, reduce contradictions and conflicts, and jointly promote the optimization of community management.

In terms of supervision, strengthening supervision measures will standardize the service behavior of property service enterprises, improve the service quality and transparency, protect the legitimate rights and interests of owners, promote the healthy development of the property management industry, make the market mechanism play a better role in the property management industry, and enhance the market competitiveness and development level of the whole industry.

Good houses are closely linked with good services. Building a safe and livable good house and providing warm and warm services are not only related to the improvement of residents’ happiness and the construction of "four good", but also directly related to the market development and future of the property management industry. Only by constantly innovating and optimizing management, improving service quality and meeting the needs of owners and residents can we promote the development of property management industry.

Text arrangement: Han Yali